In the shadow of Longs!

Well I’m up in Estes Park this weekend coordinating Campus Step Up which is a social justice retreat for students here at CSU. For those of you that don't know what I currently do, I work in student affairs at CSU as a graduate leadership coordinator. I plan events that are based around co-curricular leadership training; from 3 day retreats like Step Up that focus on social justice, to workshops on a variety of topics, to a 6 day retreat up in the mountains based around building and understanding leadership. We also bring in distinguished speakers and host or sponsor a variety of other events on or around campus. Co-curricular leadership is just a small part of the office, there are some amazing things going on here at SLiCE to help students get involved in their community and become more socially conscious individuals.

Anyway so I’m up here in Estes for the weekend and staying at Lake Shore Lodge, watching students grow through thought and learning about themselves and their peers. I of course brought my 5 fingers, and there just happened to be a nice 5 mile trail around the lake behind the resort!! The picture above is the view from the lounge; Long's and Meeker were beautiful this morning as the soft yellow and orange light from the rising sun bounced off the face of these incredible peaks. I got up nice and early and without stretching I took off. I wanted to run cold and see how my body and legs would react. My legs were feeling great after a few days off from running and I figured it was time to push again. The run this morning was not particularly hard, or even long for that matter, a quick 5 miles, but it was all on pavement and I was wearing my vibrams. My stride and technique are getting better I think and my toes didn’t hurt at all this morning. I didn't feel like my calfilies were getting beat on either, but after the run they were tight for sure! Really tight actually, and I was thinking I was in for a long day of painful legs.... But after about an hour they relaxed and now their is little to no lingering pain. The first few runs in these bad boys made my calfilies sore for days on end, but not this run. Maybe they were sore because I didn't stretch at all before I ran, or maybe my legs recovered faster because they are just getting a little more used to my new running style. Either way, I am glad the pain is gone, I really want to run this loop again tomorrow morning!!

So 2 weeks in and I’m feeling great. My legs are getting stronger, I think my technique is getting smoother, and I love how the shoes fit and feel. I am not going to push past 5 miles for a while in these things though, I do think I need time, to allow the muscles I haven’t used in years to really catch up with the rest of my body, but every day my feet and legs get stronger and every day I feel a little better about running! I am having fun running again, for the first time in years!! I'll keep the updates coming as I push longer and harder, and I'll keep notice of any little thing that these shoes lead to. Thanks for reading!!!

Ps I don't know why the fonts are all screwed up on this post, I have tried to change the font like 10 times, Blogger is messing with me......